Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[humbaba]

Tesla should be able to find an IT solution to its customer communication problem. They should have deadlines to reply to emails, if the deadlines are not met, communications should bump up the chain of command notifying supervisors and managers responses were not given to customer requests. I think a customer portal IT overhaul should be done, from reservation to vin assignment delivery and service all handled through one portal. That way if a supervisor has to respond he can quickly get up to speed. I think @neroden has mentioned similar IT recommendations.

Maybe I'm the exception, but I used to do quite well at such tasks -- but I became thoroughly burned out. I can still provide quality, attentive customer service if I have to, but I'd rather be the BOFH*. Well, I'm not that bad.

My point is that even if you hire people who are great at the job they will burn out at some point. And I don't think there's much correlation between burnout rate and quality of service -- its just hit and miss. So while hiring a good programmer can end up with a long term productive employee, I don't think the same is true for service jobs. Consequently I expect staffing to always be challenging.

And, if Tesla support follows the hierarchy of IT services then the customer facing folks are always the least experienced and qualified which makes providing quality service that much more difficult.

* some things are just better left as abbreviations (spelling them out doesn't really help) but BOFH := "Bastard Operator From Hell"

 

[printf42]

OT

Likewise my 2018 Tesla X75D over 8,000 miles had very few problems, most caused by the guy in the driver's seat, and Tesla has come through in a timely manner.

Those problems are called “lose nut behind the wheel”, my car has one too.

 

[avoigt]

Lets imagine altogether for a minute that Tesla would release the Y and allow test drives but the car is not delivered yet but all videos someone records are by NDA not allowed to be published 4 weeks after the first car is delivered.

What would the media say?
What would the Analysts say?
What would you think about it?

I am severely disappointed and can only say its a sign of strong weakness and really bad behaviors undermining all trust and credibility and an incredible slap in the face of everybody who considers to buy an Audi e-tron.

To be frank, if I would consider to buy it and until today I thought its a good car I would hold back until that bann is lifted.

 

[Buckminster]

Follow up poll on fixing the service issues

 

[gene]

Service in Toronto is top notch, I felt all my needs were addressed quickly. Mind you they were pretty tame.

I have always had superb service from Santa Barbara.

 

[EVMeister]

I have always had superb service from Santa Barbara.

Impossible. We shall only accept negative experiences!

 

[reddit_tl]

Service deserves attention.

But, for a company like Tesla the best questions from stock owners are those on the outlook of the company. The detailed managerial questions can wait. We can find better ways to communicate that to the company. And we should. But Tesla has too many more important and exciting stuff in the FUTURE and we want to discuss that since we are literally investing in that future.

 

[AlMc]

I have always had superb service from Santa Barbara.

I asked if they could add a vote category 'I have had NO problems with service'

 

[anthonyj]

Added another 105 shares this morning, couldn’t resist. Especially since Musk purchased shares last year at over $300, multiple times.

 

[keydiver]

I have had no problems with service from the West Palm Beach SC. In fact, I just came from there today, after a service visit for my new Model 3. The outside temperature display had stopped working, and I expected a simple loose ground or other bad connection, as the sensor is a simple NTC thermistor under the front bumper cover.
What they found totally surprised me: RATS! A rat evidently came out of my woods to the Model 3 parked in my carport, starting building a nest on the bumper, and chewed through the sensor wire right where it came out of the harness.
I was all prepared for a big bill, as they had the car for almost 2 hours to install a new pin and wire in the harness, but when she gave me the bill it was $0.00. Instead of $150/hour, they decided to wave the charges gratis. Wow. What else can I say. Wow.

 

[SOULPEDL]

Added another 105 shares this morning, couldn’t resist. Especially since Musk purchased shares last year at over $300, multiple times.

Delayed action... any reasons? You've been right here on this thread the whole way. Did you believe the FUD? (Still a great price!)

 

[SOULPEDL]

Been meaning to ask... this up/down is like groundhog day. So who's losing while I'm winning? Are the shorts getting bit every time? I have trouble believing it's the day trader or are they that ignorant of the facts? Institutional, I doubt that too. Who the heck keeps selling at the bottom?

 

[Curt Renz]

Barron's - 3 minutes ago: Investors Are Too Gloomy About Tesla Stock, Analyst Says

 

[Thekiwi]

End of week recap:

Close: $297.04 (down from $302.26 last Friday close)
High of week: $308.00 (Tuesday)
Low of week: $279.28 (Thursday)

Trading related news:
- short trading week (MLK day on Monday)
- Tesla confirms news reports of reduced staff and production volume on S/X lines after elimination of 75KW models
- government shutdown ended (for now) on Friday afternoon

 

[SOULPEDL]

Adding to that... people were here arguing about how you can't catch a falling knife.
Crazy is running from the knife!

 

[SOULPEDL]

Barron's - 3 minutes ago: Investors Are Too Gloomy About Tesla Stock, Analyst Says

Sums it up quite well.

 

[Zhelko Dimic]

Lets imagine altogether for a minute that Tesla would release the Y and allow test drives but the car is not delivered yet but all videos someone records are by NDA not allowed to be published 4 weeks after the first car is delivered.

What would the media say?
What would the Analysts say?
What would you think about it?

I am severely disappointed and can only say its a sign of strong weakness and really bad behaviors undermining all trust and credibility and an incredible slap in the face of everybody who considers to buy an Audi e-tron.

To be frank, if I would consider to buy it and until today I thought its a good car I would hold back until that bann is lifted.

WTF, Is Bjorn of lower than average intelligence? (trying to be politically correct here, ok)

It seems he signed NDA until particular date. This is typical for all journalists, and many product launched (cars, cameras etc). Journalists get an early access, and then they all are allowed to publish on the same date. Creates a flurry of coverage.

Just a strategy that is widespread for new product introduction, to help marketing dollars go further, as these events and test programs cost quite a bit.

Is it that him not being a journalist doesn't understand it? If so, it's disappointing he's so poorly informed in general. Or maybe he mastered a clickbait, creating drama strategies?

 

[abasile]

Glad I added a bit more TSLA this week, at about $284. Sort of regretting not buying more, even though I'm way overweighted already.

TL;DR - My impression is that service is indeed improving.

Like others here, all of our Tesla service center and mobile service experiences have been excellent. Waiting for parts has been the only negative for us, and I think Tesla is working to improve parts availability.

In Q3 last year, our Model 3 delivery communications were quite poor until just before delivery, when the local delivery team got involved. It appears that, for most people, the delivery process was smoother in Q4 even though more cars were being delivered.

We had also difficulty getting a referral bonus delivered, and many follow-up emails and calls were needed to sort this out. Tesla eventually came through. This referral program is going away, which I actually see as a good step forward, so this will be moot.

As I've mentioned previously, it's been tougher to get support on the Energy side, for our Powerwalls. In the last several days, my interactions have seemed significantly more productive and serious. (Weeks ago, a Solar rep who answered the phone rudely and ignorantly suggested that I needed to have our issues verified by an electrician before Tesla would investigate.) In the last couple of days, after having me run some tests, the Energy support team finally identified an issue preventing my Powerwalls from charging from solar during utility outages. So, anecdotally at least, things seem to be looking up. Maybe Tesla did indeed fire some of the bad reps (and hopefully none of the good ones)!

EDIT - I forgot a couple of things. Tesla still owes me a $500 deposit refund since we didn't use them for a solar installation job late last summer. I may have to bug them again. In general, they do need to return deposits more quickly, as a returned deposit doesn't necessarily mean the end of the customer's relationship with the company. Also, after being told multiple times that Tesla would apply for a California SGIP rebate on our behalf for our Powerwalls, we're not seeing any action on this, and it seems unlikely to happen before the one year deadline is up. My main issue here has been with the lack of transparency and utter lack of communication. If I don't get the rebate, fine, but I'd prefer to know where I stand.

 

[FrANce]

If you read my mail than you will realize I compare to my personal situation therefore there is no exaggeration there. I drove a Porsche Cayman S and had an average consumption of about 13 liter in real live.

Talking about efficiency: $500 for driving 25,000 miles.
Thats amazing! $2 for 100 miles. In Germany I paid with my old ICE car about $32 for 100 miles.
The Model 3 is 16 times cheaper in driving 100 miles..... Thats incredible. Any questions about demand in Europe?

Only that you did link your personal situation to the demand in Europe

 

[avoigt]

Someone gets it....

(...) Manfred Schoch, deputy chairman of the supervisory board at BMW, has publicly critiqued BMW’s rejection of battery cell R&D, basing his assessment on the model of innovation and vision that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has established for his automotive company. (...)

BMW Exec Bemoans Company's Failure To Keep Pace With Tesla's Battery Cell Production | CleanTechnica

I am positively surprised that a BMW Board member speaks out the truth and I hope others are listening!